Monday 22 April 2013 16.52 EDT
First published on Monday 22 April 2013 16.52 EDT

Robin van Persie chooses Manchester United, 17 August

On 17 August the Dutchman rejected Manchester City’s advances to state: “When you have to make a hard decision in your life, I always listen to that little boy inside me. What does he want? That boy was screaming for Manchester United.” Van Persie scored on his home debut to register the first of the league goals in the case he has filed for being the single most crucial factor in the title’s destiny

Manchester City lose at the Bernabéu, 18 September

After 90 minutes of this Champions League group game Cristiano Ronaldo scored a winner that Joe Hart should have saved and the tone was set for a season of disappointments from star players. City had been leading with four minutes remaining and Roberto Mancini rounded on Hart’s “we threw it away” admission. “I am the judge, not Joe Hart,” the manager said. This was not the only time he and his squad would be in open discord

This time 91 minutes had gone when City created their downfall. At 2-2 Van Persie unloaded a free-kick to which Nasri turned his back and the ball deflected off him to beat Hart. The wall was “two-and a-half men” came Mancini’s pithy assessment

United tighten defence after 4-3 win over Newcastle United, 26 December

This victory marked the 19-game halfway point and the second time Ferguson’s gang had escaped with a 4-3 win following the result at Reading before Christmas. It proved the watershed he had been calling for. At that juncture his defence had allowed 28 goals. Since then, only seven more have been shipped

Training ground bust-up with Mario Balotelli, 3 January

The pictures of Mancini grappling with the temperamental striker were undignified and hardly sent a message to Ferguson and his players that City, seven points behind at the time, were a united front gunning for them

Forty minutes into an FA Cup fourth-round tie at Stoke, City’s captain limped off with a third serious calf injury in a year. Then, the champions were four points behind United. Over the next three league games seven more were dropped and on Kompany’s return on 30 March, City’s deficit was 15

Mancini fails to replace Balotelli, 31 January

The sighs of relief from the club were deafening when the Italian was sold to Milan. Yet his performances away from City – at last summer’s Euros and in his seven goals in eight Series A appearances since leaving – raise questions about Mancini’s man-management. Balotelli’s departure also left a vacancy yet to be filled in a misfiring attack

Hart mistake at Southampton, 9 February

The schoolboy error that allowed Rickie Lambert’s shot to slip from Hart’s grasp into Steve Davis’s path for Southampton’s second in a 3-1 loss book-ended his mistake at the Bernabéu in September. City fell nine points behind with the keeper’s howler, summing up an inconsistent season from the side’s A-listers

Wayne Rooney keeps his mouth shut, 5 March

The striker may end his career with no more bitter a pill to swallow than being dropped for his club’s biggest match this season: a second leg last-16 Champions League meeting with Real Madrid at Old Trafford. Yet despite having to deal with a very public disappointment, Rooney uttered no word of dissent. The ongoing disagreements between Mancini and his squad has been a narrative of their failure